Gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea is a fungal disease that can determine significant economic losses of apple during the storage phase. An alternative to reduce the use of traditional synthetic fungicides is to employ the yeast Starmerella bacillaris as biological control agent (BCA), also with positive effect on apple juice fermentation for the production of cider. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the safety of 16 S. bacillaris strains and their ability to control B. cinerea. In addition, the fermentation performances in apple juice and the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profile were assessed, both in single-strain and in sequential fermentations with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The in vitro assays showed that all S. bacillaris strains can be considered safe from the analyzed virulence factors, and were able to significantly constrain the growth of B. cinerea, reducing mycelial growth of 50% in dual-culture and of 90% through VOCs. Moreover, in vivo antagonistic assays revealed a visible decrease of gray mold rot symptoms on apples confirming the potential of S. bacillaris as BCA. GC-MS analysis of the ciders obtained showed increased concentrations in the sequential fermentation of some higher alcohols and terpenes, positively correlated with the cider aromatic quality, and suggested the involvement of benzyl alcohol, known for its antimicrobial action, in the biocontrol efficacy.

由灰葡萄孢引起的灰霉病是一种真菌病，可以确定苹果在贮藏阶段的重大经济损失。减少使用传统合成杀真菌剂的另一种方法是使用酵母菌Starmerella bacillaris作为生物防治剂（BCA），对苹果汁发酵生产苹果酒也具有积极作用。因此，我们旨在评估16种芽孢杆菌菌株的安全性及其对灰质芽孢杆菌的控制能力。此外，评估了苹果汁的发酵性能和挥发性有机化合物（VOC）的特性，无论是单菌株发酵还是酿酒酵母的顺序发酵。在体外分析表明，从所分析的毒力因子来看，所有细菌杆菌都可以认为是安全的，并且能够显着抑制灰葡萄孢的生长，通过双重培养降低菌丝体的生长50％，通过VOC降低菌丝体的90％。此外，体内拮抗试验显示苹果上的灰霉病症状明显减少，这证实了芽孢杆菌作为BCA的潜力。对所得苹果酒的GC-MS分析表明，在某些高级醇和萜烯的顺序发酵中，其浓度增加，与苹果酒的芳香品质呈正相关，并表明以其抗菌作用而闻名的苄醇参与了生物防治功效。